The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon
published 2000 - read 2004

A "great American novel" about a couple of comic book creators is long overdue, and Chabon delivers with flair, insight, and at least three ten-dollar words per page.  Of course I loved all the stuff about comic books, but what makes the book work is that Chabon really convinces you that these two Jewish kids in 1939's Brooklyn  not only want to make comic books but need to make comic books.  That one is a trained escapist and a refugee from the Third Reich only adds to the sense of urgency and the resonance with larger themes of life's entrapments - after all, they don't call this stuff escapist literature for nothing.  The ending is a little bit too short after all that's gone before, but I was hardly complaining; if nothing else, this book gave me the spark to get back into drawing comics after essentially a four-year hiatus.  That alone deserves whatever equivalent I have to the Pulitzer this already won.

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